Personal Injury Law

One killed, three injured in Illinois train derailment

By Hurley, McKenna & Murtz

The New York Times /AP (6/21, A18) reported, "Rail cars containing thousands of gallons of ethanol exploded when a Canadian National Railway freight train derailed on Friday night, killing one person and resulting in the evacuation of hundreds of nearby homes." The accident occurred in Rockford, Illinois, a town about 80 miles northwest of Chicago. The Rockford Fire Department determined that 74 of the 114 train cars contained ethanol. Five cars were still burning on Saturday morning and fire fighters were waiting for the ?very dangerous inferno to burn out by itself.?

The Winnebago County coroner, "Sue Fiduccia, said on Saturday that the person who was killed was a woman who had been waiting in a car for the train to pass through a crossing." Chief Derek Bergsten of the Rockford Fire Department "said that three people ran from the [same] car when it was bombarded with flying railroad ties and that they were severely burned by flaming ethanol." Currently, the cause of the derailment is undetermined, and a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said the investigation could take a year.

This tragedy illustrates the need for increased railroad safety measures. As a personal injury lawyer in Chicago, I am an advocate of heightened safety requirements.

Full post as published by Illinois Car and Truck Accident Lawyer Blog on June 23, 2009 (boomark / email).